`Chinese engineers were prime target of Pak naval base attack`

Islamabad: The twin aim of the recent terrorist attack on Karachi’s Mehran Naval Station was to harm the eleven Chinese engineers present there and destroy the US-supplied Orion aircraft, according to sources.

Four to six Taliban terrorists had entered PNS Mehran on May 22, destroying two maritime surveillance aircraft and killing 10 military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base.

“Eleven Chinese engineers, who were working on a very important project, were present in the Base Mess when the terrorists attacked the compound. Six US marines were also present in their separate mess and the security of the Chinese and Americans was given the top priority, as the attackers were charging on from two directions because the two messes were not located at one place,” The News quoted informed sources, as saying.

They said that although the attackers succeeded in destroying the aircraft, their plot to harm the Chinese engineers was foiled, as Pakistani security officials safely evacuated the Chinese and Americans present at the base during the siege.

“The Chinese engineers were working with Pakistani engineers on a project to enhance the defence capabilities of the Pakistan Navy. The project had, however, been completed and its demonstration had also been given sometime ago,” the sources said.

They also said that the impression being created by some anti-Pakistan quarters that the security institutions of the country had failed is completely baseless, misleading and concocted because the Chinese engineers, who were the real target of the terrorists, were successfully evacuated from the base amid intense firing.